Noel's House Party - Saturday Night Marmite

 When I was small and weirder, I was highly entertained by shows that would merge fiction and reality, TCM being the obvious example but there were plenty of others. Shows that would take real people and have them experiencing life in, to some degree, a fantasy world. Knightmare took its contestants and made them have an adventure through a swords-and-sorcery style greenscreen-scape. Scavengers took contestants to a derelict space cruiser and made them work in the recycling sector for the viewing public's "entertainment". Gamesmaster - Oil rig, hell, heaven, island... they were determined to inject a little fiction into the art of having children play Mortal Kombat II. This mixture of fiction in reality would spill into BBC1 Saturday nights with the help of a short beardy bloke off of the radio.

 Regardless of what you think of Mr. Noel Ernest Edmonds, there's no denying he's very good at what he does in terms of producing entertaining content (ignore Cheap, Cheap, Cheap).

 In 1988, a little bit before my TV viewing career began, The Noel Edmonds Saturday Roadshow would bring a variety of games, competitions, pranks, and guests to the viewing public. Each week the show would be beamed live from a different unusual location each week. In reality, the same London studio each week but with a new set built every time. As with all good variety shows, there were regular features to keep the air of familiarity throughout the series as it moved from the Channel Tunnel dig site to outer space. 'The Gotcha Oscars' was one such item. Noel and his production team playing elaborate pranks on celebrities of the time. Then there was 'Wait Till I Get You Home' which had Noel interrogating children with the intention of embarrassing their parents. Then, of course, you can't mention Noel Edmonds and Saturday nights without mentioning gunge. Saturday Roadshow used it in a pretty basic way, as a forfeit for a member of the public losing a word game whilst assisted by a celebrity guest, but I'll get back to the mess later.

When TNESR came to an end, the name may have changed but the format carried on and Noel set up residence in the village of Crinkley Bottom for a show that would run for 9 years: "Noel's House Party". Every Saturday night, Noel would invite guests for a party at his house with the familiar segments from Saturday Roadshow and some new, such as Grab a Grand, which saw him putting someone in a transparent enclosure to grab bits of paper blowing around inside... weird idea.

What kept NHP firmly sandwiched between the realms of fantasy and fiction was how much Hoel would play to the fact he lived in the house, and how a range of celebrity guests would turn up at the door and play along as residents. Whether it was Roger Moore saying he'd bought the house next door or Dean Cain ringing the doorbell as a local journalist delivering the paper, a choice of big 90's names were always happy to make even the briefest of appearances.

'Wait Till I Get You Home" would see Noel questioning a set of parents about their offsprings possibly embarrassing answers to a few questions. Sort of in the vein of Mr & Mrs, except the kids would have given their answers during a long day of Noel questioning classfuls of kids one by one, and when he found an interesting subject, they and their parents would get invited on the show. After a few questions, the kid would choose a random forfeit from a choice of three (For Example, "I must be silent for an hour a day for a week") and then receive a treat in the form of a stereo system, a TV or a games console. One occasion that comes to mind saw Noel handing over a Mega Drive with a copy of Mortal Kombat 2, you'd never get kids being given a copy of MK11 for a TV show now. Another instance saw the kid forego an expensive prize in lieu of a treat of another kind: the surprise gunging of his parents.

Gunge was a mainstay of Noel's Saturday nights. Over the years it was delivered in numerous, often creative, methods but it was certainly one of the hallmarks of the show. Early series saw phone-in votes to decide who would get it. Other times it was with a celebrity guest purely appearing on the show to be on the receiving end such as in the case of Kilroy. The audience wasn't safe, the regular guests weren't safe, even Noel himself wasn't safe when the production crew decided it was his turn towards the end of each series. Tony Slattery was once about to be on the receiving end and decided to take Noel with him which given their share of the gunk doesn't drop, suggests to me that it was unplanned and they tried to save his radio mic equipment. 

The Gotcha's (formerly Gotcha Oscars until the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said "errr, no") saw Noel playing elaborate pranks on celebrities of the time. Eddie Large, Bob Holness, Carol Vorderman and dozens of others fell victim to fake TV shows, fake tours, and all kinds of bizarre scenarios. There was one with Annabel Giles where she caught them out straight away and played along for a bit after spotting the hidden camera in the car. Jeremy Clarkson also spotted a hidden camera but wasn't sure as to its purpose. Annabel would then get a gunging which she said last year on Richard Herring's podcast ruined her boots.

Gotchas also spawned a big pink mass that has plagued TV ever since: Mr Blobby. At first, he was just a fictional kids character who was used as part of pranking celebs during the filming of a fictional children's show. After that though, when he outlived his practical joke usefulness as he would have just been recognized as "that character Noel Edmonds uses", he gained a life of his own and became a regular character on the show. He had a theme park, a Christmas number one single, and he appeared on other shows across the BBC and beyond. 

More practical jokes came in the form of NTV, where a viewer at home would be surprised with their own face live on television thanks to hidden cameras in their house. Many members of the viewing public would be taken aback by Noel talking directly to them, as would the rare famous face such as Chris Evans.

There were other shorter-lived segments such as 'My Little Friend' which saw Noel voicing puppets coming to life in a classroom when left alone with one or two kids (at one time terrifying a little girl). There was also the Number Cruncher, a competition for viewers to find a special phonebox somewhere in the country and play a number game to try and win some money. In short, they had to figure out a four-digit code from 4 given numbers. Each number they pressed added to the possible prize pot so eventually, people started figuring out that pressing 9 repeatedly at the start would get them a larger sum. If they won they could gamble to double their money or get nothing but the same reward they would get for running out of time, gunge.

And finally, can't not mention Grab a Grand. A phone-in competition where a celebrity (later a member of the studio audience) would be tasked with gathering cash blown around inside a big perspex box on behalf of a viewer at home. When it changed to an audience member doing the grabbing, they would also get the sum collected. They'd also change up the format quite often to keep it different, such as grabbing it from swinging dummies or throwing it fan-assisted into the audience for them to join in with.

After spawning international versions in Germany, Denmark, and Belgium among others, the show felt the BBC's axe in early 1999 but it's still used as inspiration for a lot of current variety entertainment. Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway openly borrows plenty from NHP. There have always been rumours of a revival or at least a one-off but with Noel having moved to New Zealand, I don't see it happening. With Noel now in his 70's, there's every chance he may just want to put his feet up after a long, busy media career. And while he's not everybody's cup of tea, as I said before, there's no denying he's contributed plenty to British entertainment.